A divided Santa Fe Planning Commission has narrowly approved a Cerrillos
Road hotel proposal, paving the way for the project to go before the
City Council later this year.

Commission Chair Janet Clow cast the tie-breaking vote at a meeting
Thursday night to approve the plan by Albuquerque-based Titan
Development to build a four-story, 150-room hotel on Cerrillos Road,
just southwest of the South St. Francis Drive intersection. The vote was
4-3.

The proposed Titan Hotel would be located at 1000, 1101 and 1103
Cerrillos Road, directly across from the New Mexico School for the Deaf.
The dogleg-shape, nearly 80,000-square-foot building would be located on
a narrow, triangular, 3.4-acre parcel of land bordered by Cerrillos
Road, Pen Road and two businesses on Cordova Road.

It would be operated by AC Hotels by Marriott, a midscale hotel chain
that began in 1996 in Spain and expanded across Europe before being
acquired by Marriott International in 2011.

Commissioners Sheb Mirando, Sasha McGhee and Kelly McReynolds voted to
approve the project, while Scott Barber, Thomas Rieland and Peter Smith
voted against it.

Smith offered a colorful explanation for his opposition, characterizing
the project as “10 pounds of sausage in a 5-pound bag.”

Rieland said he voted against the project because he didn’t think
residents’ concerns about vehicular access to the property had been
fully addressed.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” he said.

A half-dozen people spoke against the project during the public comment
period of the meeting. That was far fewer than the number of folks who
voiced opposition during an early neighborhood notification meeting
Sept. 30, but many of their complaints mirrored the concerns expressed
in the fall.

Most of the issues they raised were connected to the additional traffic
the hotel would create on Cerrillos Road, and the hotel’s height and
appearance.

Edward Archuleta, co-director of the Old Santa Fe Association, an
organization that works to preserve the city’s architectural heritage,
began his remarks by noting Santa Fe’s unique architecture is one of the
reasons it continues to attract new residents and visitors from around
the world.

“We are slowly losing that uniqueness to, frankly, poor design and
planning like this project tonight,” he said. “Do we really need another
multistory hotel in Santa Fe?”

Members of his association were united in their opposition to the hotel,
he said, based mainly on its location and the traffic issues it would
cause. He described the Cerrillos Road-South St. Francis Drive
intersection as already “overcongested.”

He also read a letter from former Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna
Hansen that called the proposal a bad idea. She suggested a better use
for the land would be for the city or the New Mexico Department of
Transportation to buy it and widen Cerrillos Road.

Santa Fe resident Marsha Emmerton roundly criticized the project.

“I’m very much against this,” she said. “Don’t need it. Doesn’t fit in
any way, shape or form into anything around there. It just seems like a
money-maker for Marriott.”

Emmerton said the only thing she liked about the proposal was its
planned addition of a sidewalk and several trees to the property.

“The rest of it seems like a debacle,” she said.

Those comments were preceded by a presentation by Jennifer Jenkins of
JenkinsGavin Inc., the land use and project management firm for Titan
Development. Jenkins presented the findings of a traffic study of the
area that found the hotel would have no significant effect on wait times
for motorists at five points along Cerrillos Road between Cordova Road
and South St. Francis Drive.

The study included morning and evening rush-hour periods, while also
taking into account delays caused by the New Mexico Rail Runner Express,
Jenkins said.

Ian Robertson of Titan Development addressed concerns about the hotel’s
appearance that had been expressed in September by noting the property
currently features an abundance of recreational vehicles, cars and
weeds. He said it also lacks a sidewalk, something that will change if
the hotel is built.

Titan’s plans call for the construction of a 6-foot-wide sidewalk and
the creation of a 10-foot-wide landscape buffer with dozens of trees
along Cerrillos Road — changes Robertson said would greatly improve the
streetscape.

The project would have only two points of vehicular access, according to
the updated plan presented Thursday. The first would be a right-turn-
only exit on to Cerrillos Road at the westernmost corner of the
property, while a second point of access with ingress and egress would
be located at the middle of the site.

Titan’s Josh Rogers addressed Planning Commission members’ questions
about the hotel’s financial feasibility; he said the company’s research
indicated the lodging market in Santa Fe is very strong and that a hotel
likely would do well at the site.

While calling for the vote, Commissioner Mirando moved that the proposal
be contingent upon Titan making a “good-faith” effort to “soften” the
top northeast corner of the building, which is where a rooftop lounge is
planned.